The Problem of Bias in the Writing of Elementary History Textbooks.

In 1765, Patrick Henry stirred the hearts of his countrymen with the words "If this be treason, make the most of it," and, later on, "Give me liberty or give me death!"1 In 1814, British troops stormed the city of Washington and burned its public buildings in an "unprovoked riot of senseless carnage."2 And in 1919, the Versailles peace negotiations became "a struggle between the forces of Good represented by the saintly Woodrow Wilson and the forces of Evil played by the Allied diplomats."3 Or so many history textbooks would have us believe. But what their authors neglect to mention is that the re marks attributed to one of America's oratorical heroes were at best probably misquoted, and may even have been the in vention of a member of the nineteenth-century "patriotic" school of historians; that the Washington attack closely fol lowed the American burning of York, Ontario; and that Wilson failed, in part, to consider the political and military conse quences for the Allies in his plans for a "just and lasting peace." How extensive is this misrepresentation in textbooks today? What form does it take, and what people and events are most often its "victims?" What are the consequences and implica tions of the writing of biased history? What can be done to cor rect the situation ( assuming, of course, that correction is deemed desirable?and there is varying opinion on this ) ?